When will the 04-05 season start?

Now that it's official - when do you think the new season will begin - or will 04-05 even happen?

Personally, I think it will be January. By then the big boys should be tired of the pissing match, the support staff will have spent their savings, and the players can still make 1/2 their salary.
The fans will be happy because there is nothing else going on in January.

If if comes to this, the league leader in goals wil have less than 25.

Oh well, wake me when it happens and like another poster stated, a media boycott would be handy.

There will be no season. Our Trevor Linden states that the players will not accept a proposal that links payrolls to revenues, and the union continues to spew their rhetoric about how hard they are trying to get a deal done when they say that a cap is a non-starter. THE NHL IS BROKEN! Do they not realize this?! This is typical union sh*t. I'm glad the NHL is locking them out, this time when (or if) a deal gets done it will fix the problems. I don't really feel like cheering for overpayed, "underprivileged" players if they choose to ignore the simple fact that they earn too much, and the league is screwed unless something is done about it. AARRGGHHH, it just pisses me off SO MUCH!

David: You know how I know you're gay?
Cal: How?
David: You like Coldplay.

If there's enough of us making a point that we'll not attend games or watch NHL hockey until the end of 05-06 season, and make them understand that, we fans, are an influence to this whole thing too. Both the NHL and the NHLPA thinks that once they get back together, we fans will be like clones and just walk back to the game. If we make a stand and make them understand, they'll HAVE to do something quick.

Let's start a NHLFans Association

I'm damn serious, I'm not going to attend a game in the next two years if they don't sort this thing out.

Just FWIW, the current membership of the NHLFA is 22,704 members. Bettman won't give the NHLFA more consideration until the membership level is around 75,000 so get everyone you know to sign up. Then we'll be able to have an organized voice as fans.

It's the people who work at arenas and and what not that will really lose. This is not only affecting the NHL high ups, owners and the NHLPA. There are ordinary people losing their livelyhoods because of this lockout.

Sad.

I am doing all this to save your ass when all I really want to do is drop you on it!

If there's enough of us making a point that we'll not attend games or watch NHL hockey until the end of 05-06 season, and make them understand that, we fans, are an influence to this whole thing too. Both the NHL and the NHLPA thinks that once they get back together, we fans will be like clones and just walk back to the game. If we make a stand and make them understand, they'll HAVE to do something quick.

Let's start a NHLFans Association

I'm damn serious, I'm not going to attend a game in the next two years if they don't sort this thing out.

I like your idea champ, but in reality the fans should have planned something a year ago as per staying away in droves. It's sad really, but we fans do not know the ultimate power that we can weild in a shitstorm like this. If the fans across the NHL really truly orgainzed themselves into a serious union they could drive a stake through the owners and the players. I will not see anything like this in my lifetime and neither will you. We have a beter chance of seeing the NDP back in power again....................god help us all .

PlayoffVan wrote:I'm pretty sure one fan group has been boycotting the NHL for nearly a decade. I believe they call themselves the US of A.

I've heard some commentators saying that the Canadian fans will always be there for the NHL. Once the lockout is over and hockey resumes, Canadian fans will go to the rink. I agree with this.

But then they say not so in the US. Hockey will suffer much greater in that country. I think it's doing so bad in some markets that it isn't likely to do much worse. Other markets that are strong, like Philly or Detroit, won't lose many fans. Getting a CBA signed for the long haul plus improving the quality of the game is all they need to get those who are on the fence back on the bandwagon in those cities that lie somewhere in between. Plus, you need an exciting team...that tends to fix a lot of problems no matter what the status is of the CBA.

I think you either want to watch the NHL or you don't. The fans that do will return, the ones that don't likely aren't investing much of their time/money as it is. I don't buy the theory that a long work stoppage would "kill" the game. Hockey isn't going anywhere...and no matter how long a sport is suspended, fans will always return. There may be an initial period of disinterest that some markets need to overcome, but nothing more.

I saw Ron McLean on last nite and he figured that the NHL season would be back in January sometime and then having a 48 game schedule.

He said that with baseball playoffs coming up and the NFL season starting the owners weren't in a real rush to get things going as it was their "slow" time of year as far as ticket sales went. They would be more interested in just sitting for a few months and trying to look at things in January.

Ron also said that he felt it was different than in '94 because players were making far less than they are now ... players who are making 10 million a year etc. now would be putting a lot of pressure on Bob G. to get things done.